Rain sinks city’s monsoon-preparedness

Three days of steady rainfall threw the city out of gear, with complaints of water-logging, traffic jams and tree falls pouring in on Wednesday.

The disaster management cell received 33 complaints related to water-logging from across the city. South Mumbai remained the worst affected with low-lying areas such as Dadar TT, Shivaji Park police station lane, and Hindmata in Dadar (East) getting submerged within an hour of rain on Tuesday night.

“There was too much water at Hindmata. When I was returning from work on Tuesday, I had to wade through knee-high water to reach home. Traffic was crawling as it took me around an hour to travel from Kala Ghoda to Parel, whereas it usually takes around 20 minutes,” said Mala Das, 48, a Dadar resident.

Areas in the eastern and western suburbs also went under water as flooding was reported from Ganesh Mandir to Kurla station road and Bandra station road.

While areas around Hindmata and GD Ambedkar Road in Parel are known to flood every monsoon, residents claimed that Tilak Road that goes towards Wadala was also flooded on Wednesday morning.

“This road does not usually flood, but this year the situation seems to have worsened. Roadside drains were overflowing as they were not cleaned properly,” claimed Nikhil Desai, member of Citizens’ Forum F-North ward.

Although the civic body claimed it had operated 64 dewatering pumps to flush out water accumulated on the streets, residents said the pumps were of little help when it rained heavily.

“These pumps flush water into drains that are already overflowing,” said Desai.

Apart from the water-logging, the civic body received 37 complaints related to tree falls from 8.30am on Tuesday to 8.30am on Wednesday.

Civic officials, however, maintained that the situation was brought under control within thirty minutes after the complaints were received. “Soon after the complaints were received, officials at the respective wards were informed. They took charge of the situation immediately,” said Mahesh Narvekar, chief officer, disaster management cell.